This (12-07-97)excerpt is from a series of articles
published in the ATLANTA JORNAL CONSTITUTION.

Connections pave the
way

Along the Perimeter rises a $72 million complex of projects
designed by Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc. Looking south along I-75,
the new Kennedy Interchange includes constructing the Kennedy Parkway from
Cobb Parkway to Akers Mill Road; widening five bridges; building eight new
bridges; adding HOV lanes and realigning nearby roads . Is
it unethical for Moreland to do so much work with the state?

By Bert Roughton Jr., The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As he was retiring in 1987 to pursue his fortune in the private sector,
Georgia Transportation Commissioner Tom
Morelandpledged that he would not work directly with
the state.

Yet, over the ensuing decade, Moreland's engineering firm has signed
more than $7.3 million worth of consulting contracts with the department
he ran for 13 years, a review of state records by The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution shows. Additionally, Moreland's firm, working for private
clients, has designed two of the state Department of Transportation's largest
construction projects: the $72 million Kennedy Interchange at I-285 and I-75
in Cobb County and the $100 million complex of projects along I-85 in Gwinnett
County near the Sugarloaf interchange.

Moreland, once one of the state government's most powerful men, has
built a formidable consulting engineering business in Moreland Altobelli
Associates Inc. In addition to the state, his client list includes most county
governments in metro Atlanta as well as major private developers.

Additionally, Moreland Altobelli has recruited many of its key managers
from the top echelon of the Department of Transportation. Many are retirees
drawing state pensions ranging from $40,000 to $113,000 a year at the same
time they are working as consultants on state projects. In some cases, former
DOT employees work on the same projects at Moreland Altobelli that they had
worked on when they were state employees, records show.

This continuing interaction between Moreland's firm and his former
department is perfectly legal in Georgia, which has some of the country's
most permissive ethics laws. Laws in many states restrict elected officials
and/or employees from moving so freely into the private sector.

Sometimes it's hard to tell where Gwinnett County ends and Tom Moreland begins.

Gwinnett has been bread and butter to Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc.
since the engineering consulting firm was formed a decade ago.

Moreland started the business in 1987 a few weeks after he abruptly retired
after 13 years as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Since then, the firm has been paid nearly $20 million by Gwinnett taxpayers,
primarily to buy right of way and monitor construction of more than $400
million in road projects, county records show. And in September, the county
renewed its so-called "core services" agreement with the firm, in a five-year
deal worth another estimated $12 million to $14 million.

Over the decade that it has worked for the county, Moreland Altobelli also
has been paid millions of dollars by private Gwinnett developers and landowners
eager to enhance their holdings with publicly funded roads and interchanges.

There's nothing illegal about this. Moreland Altobelli can work for private
clients in the county as long as that work is disclosed to the county and
the firm isn't sharing confidential county information. Even so, the practice
raises questions: Can the firm balance the loyalties of clients with potentially
conflicting interests?

There's nothing illegal about this. Moreland Altobelli can work
for private clients in the county as long as that work is disclosed to the
county and the firm isn't sharing confidential county information. Even so,
the practice raises questions: Can the firm balance the loyalties of clients
with potentially conflicting interests?

Within the circle of politicians and competing consulting firms, Moreland
Altobelli's work in Gwinnett County -- both public and private -- is nothing
new. But few outside this circle have, until now, examined the way in which
the state, county and private contracts intersect.

Moreland Altobelli's largest private clients in Gwinnett are politically
connected Scott Hudgens, who developed Gwinnett Place mall and is a partner
in the Mall of Georgia, and the Eastern Airlines pilots pension fund, which
owns the 1,900-acre Sugarloaf Farms development rising in the middle of the
county.

The Sugarloaf owners have paid Moreland's firm $4.1 million to design a series
of projects -- including a new interchange on I-85 -- that will provide essential
interstate access to the development, which has a world-class golf course
at its heart. The state expects to spend more than $100 million to build
the improvements Moreland's firm is designing in the I-85 corridor between
Ga. 316 and Old Peachtree Road. Additionally, the Sugarloaf Parkway, partially
designed by Moreland Altobelli, is expected to cost more than $75 million
more when it is completed.

Hudgens is paying Moreland to redesign Ga. 20, in effect the driveway to
the Mall of Georgia, which is rising on 500 acres of tilled red clay alongside
I-85 near its juncture with the proposed Outer Perimeter. Moreland dreamed
of building the Outer Perimeter when he was commissioner, and his firm designed
the leg that forms the boundary for the mall property. Transportation
Commissioner Wayne Shackelford has agreed to build Moreland Altobelli's design.

Hudgens also hired Moreland's firm to design an extension of McGinnis Ferry
Road, a $9 million project on one of the few roads that cross the Chattahoochee
River to Fulton and Forsyth counties. The extension will dramatically improve
access to nearly 300 acres that Hudgens has targeted for commercial and
residential development.

Maintains close ties

Whenever representatives of the state, county and developer meet to discuss
these projects, there is a common bond: Each is a Moreland Altobelli client.
In addition to working for developers and the county, the former DOT commissioner
retains close ties to his old department and has had more than $7.3 million
in contracts from the state DOT.

For his private clients, Moreland does much more than simply provide blueprints.
He helps them navigate bureaucratic rapids and secure public funds for roads
projects that enhance their holdings, records show. For their fees, Moreland
Altobelli clients get his adroit skill at maneuvering through the complexities
of local, state and federal transportation bureaucracies.

In doing so, Moreland Altobelli seems to shift from engineering to advocacy
or even lobbying.

In October 1994, about the time Hudgens hired his firm, Moreland, acting
in this case as Gwinnett County's consultant, secured a commitment from
Shackelford for $5.4 million toward McGinnis Ferry Road, state records show.
Shackelford, a former developer, was Hudgens' partner in Gwinnett Place.

In meetings with county, state and federal officials on Sugarloaf, Moreland
and others on his staff -- primarily former DOT officials -- have guided
discussions about funding, federal approvals and construction phasing to
expedite the Sugarloaf projects, records show. From a reading of the minutes,
it isn't always clear who Moreland is representing at these meetings -- Gwinnett
or the Sugarloaf owners.

Moreland, whose firm began working on the Sugarloaf project in 1988, refuses
to disclose anything but the most basic information about his work for this
client, saying his contract forbids him from discussing it. Taylor Dougherty,
the Boston-based financial consultant who represents the Eastern pension
fund, also refuses to either discuss its relationship with Moreland's firm
or grant permission to Moreland to discuss it. "It just isn't in our best
interest to discuss it," said Allen Taylor of Taylor Dougherty.

No other proposals sought

Moreland Altobelli's Sugarloaf fees have been paid out of a $5 million
contribution the pilots fund made toward the road improvements in a 1990
deal that also provided the county about 90 acres for its civic center.

The fund was exhausted in April, so the county government agreed to pay $1.13
million for Moreland Altobelli to design the final phase: the interchange
at I-85 and Ga. 316. The county, which usually uses other firms to perform
design work, awarded the contract without asking any other engineering firms
to submit proposals.

Hudgens hired Moreland in 1995 even though the firm agreed in its 1992 county
contract not to design projects for private clients in the county. For both
Hudgens projects, county officials decided not to adhere to the clause that
would have prevented Moreland from working for Hudgens.

County Transportation Director Brian Allen said Moreland Altobelli was allowed
to work on the mall road because the state -- and not the county -- is paying
to build the project. This, he explains, frees Moreland's firm from being
in the conflicting position of designing a road and then supervising the
construction. Allen expressed no concern about the potential for Moreland's
having a conflict of interest.

State licensing rules require engineers to avoid conflicts of interest and
require engineers to disclose the potential of conflicts to their clients.
Moreland has twice been appointed by Gov. Zell Miller to the state board
that enforces these rules.

A 1976 Georgia attorney general's white paper defines conflict of interest
as a situation in which someone working on behalf of the public is swayed
to act in any other interest by the prospect of personal gain. Simply being
in the position to be tempted is considered a conflict. The paper does not
say whether rules governing conflicts with public employees extend to
consultants, and the attorney general's office declined to hazard a guess.
In most cases, consulting contracts set the rules, but the only provision
in the Gwinnett contracts was the clause that prohibited the firm from doing
private design work in the county.

Denies any conflict

Moreland takes great exception to any suggestion that he or his firm fails
to balance the interests of his public and private clients. In a lengthy,
acrimonious interview at which he was represented by three attorneys, Moreland
said there is never any conflict.

When he works for private clients, it is always with the consent of the county,
he said. "I made it a practice to tell them before we took a project such
as these," Moreland said. "I didn't see them as a conflict."

Moreover, he argues there can be no conflict because all the parties agree
that the projects are justified and that Moreland Altobelli should do the
work. It's then a matter of the firm's designing the projects to meet the
requirements set by the public officials.

"We were approached by both [the county and developer] and in every case
we were asked to do the project by the public entity and the private entity,"
he said. "So are we working for the public entity or are we working for the
private entity?

"It doesn't make a difference -- they have the same goal," Moreland said.
"So, you see, it's no task."

The county grants such permission to Moreland's firm with little apparent
debate or formality. This is easy to imagine given the familiar conditions
in which the county and its consultants work. Moreland's staff occupies space
in the county transportation department offices and writes letters and memos
on "Gwinnett County Road Improvement Program" stationery.

When first asked by a newspaper reporter in May about his work on the mall
road for Hudgens, Moreland said he had informed the county in writing and
obtained permission to do the work. However, after seaching its records under
a request filed by the newspaper under the state Open Records Law, the county
couldn't produce a copy of any such letter from Moreland with regard to Hudgens
or any other private client.

Moreland also has been unable to find the letter, and his lawyer conceded
in October that it may not exist.

However, county records do contain a letter from Hudgens to County Commission
Chairman Wayne Hill saying Moreland's firm had bid for the work. Hudgens
asked if the county objected and noted that he had already informed Allen.
There is no record of a response by Hill.

As the county prepared its new consulting contract with Moreland Altobelli
last summer, the clause restricting private design was softened to give the
transportation director the explicit authority to allow the firm to work
for private clients.

Hill sees no problem in Moreland's working both -- or all three -- sides
of the fence, stressing that if there is a conflict, he would demand that
Moreland adhere to the county's wishes. "If it comes down to the county or
one of his clients, his client is out of luck," the chairman said.

Hill offers nothing but praise for Moreland Altobelli. "Gwinnett County deserves
the best, and they're the best around," said Hill, who added that he also
takes comfort in his faith in Moreland's honesty and honor. "He has a very
high stature. If Tom Moreland tells me something, I can take it to the bank."

Campaign contributions

Hill also has gone to the bank with a few checks from key figures at Moreland
Altobelli. Hill, who was re-elected last year, received $6,750 in campaign
contributions from Moreland, the firm's two other key board members -- James
and Virgil Williams -- and Connie Altobelli, the wife of Moreland's retired
partner, county records show. Moreland personally wrote checks to Hill's
campaign for $2,000 in 1995 and 1996.

Contributors associated with Moreland Altobelli also helped bankroll the
other two Gwinnett commissioners who were re-elected in 1996: $5,000 for
Tommy Hughes and $3,500 for Judy Waters. In 1995, Waters returned a $1,500
contribution from Moreland that exceeded the legal limit in a non-election
year. She said it was an accident.

Hill, Hughes and Waters voted in July to extend Moreland Altobelli's contract
five more years. The commission was unanimous in awarding the contract to
Moreland's firm.

Additionally, key Moreland Altobelli figures and their wives contributed
$5,000 to the committee that campaigned successfully last year for the extension
of the 1 percent sales tax. The revenue from that tax pays for the county's
road program and Moreland Altobelli's county fees.

Moreland already is preparing for the 1998 campaign. He's given Commissioner
Kevin Kenerly $1,000, county records show. Contributors associated with the
firm gave Kenerly $2,500 for his 1994 race.

State licensing rules forbid engineers from making political contributions
in order to secure contracts. Moreland refuses to answer questions about
his relationship with Gwinnett political leaders.

Bob Stanborough, a retired Rockwell International executive who opposed Waters,
believes elected officials shouldn't accept contributions from a company
and then vote to award it a county contract.

"A commissioner should not be sitting in judgment on matters that a major
contributor has an interest in," said Stanborough, who also spent six years
as a federal procurement officer. "I spent too many years involved in government
contracts to know that you don't accept a sandwich from somebody who wants
a contract."

At least some neighborhood activists in Gwinnett consider Moreland Altobelli
a key player in a group of insular and powerful developers and political
leaders who are guiding the county's development, sometimes without paying
enough attention to the concerns of ordinary homeowners. "You often get the
sense that there's a web of money and it feels as if it's holding our county
hostage," said Joyce Nuszbaum, a lawyer who lives near Gwinnett Place who
advocates for homeowner issues. "Moreland Altobelli is a significant player
who can bring a lot of money to bear."

Within the engineering community, Moreland Altobelli is considered unassailable
in Gwinnett. Despite the size of the consulting contract for the 1997 road
program, only two firms were willing to challenge Moreland Altobelli. By
contrast, a similar consulting contractawarded in Fulton County last spring
drew 10 serious contenders.

Much of the reason for the modest response is the widely held feeling in
the engineering community that trying to unseat Moreland Altobelli from Gwinnett
is a pointless waste of money.

"They have a lock on Gwinnett," said Tommy Terrell, a former Moreland Altobelli
employee whose firm, Terrell Carroll and Hundley, was part of a joint venture
that competed for the contract. "I felt like politically they would get it
back, a couple of companies said they'll get it, so they didn't bother to
bid for it."

Driving development: where business and politics
merge

By Bert Roughton Jr., The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Additionally, Moreland Altobelli has recruited many of its key managers from
the top echelon of the Department of Transportation. Many are retirees drawing
state pensions ranging from $40,000 to $113,000 a year at the same time they
are working as consultants on state projects. In some cases, former DOT employees
work on the same projects at Moreland Altobelli that they had worked on when
they were state employees, records show.

This continuing interaction between Moreland's firm and his former department
is perfectly legal in Georgia, which has some of the country's
most permissive ethics laws. Laws in many states restrict elected
officials and/or employees from moving so freely into the private sector.

Having so many faces from the DOT provides the firm a potent competitive
edge when seeking contracts from the state. "It's the same as if a bunch
of former IBM executives left IBM and wanted to compete for an IBM proposal,"
observed Larry Kaiser, the Rockdale County transportation director who often
uses Moreland Altobelli designers.

State Transportation Commissioner Wayne Shackelford dismissed the widely
held belief that Moreland has any special access to the department, even
though the men have been friends for 24 years. "I've known Tom for a long,
long time, but I have friends in every state in America and quite a number
of foreign countries as well," Shackelford said.

Even so, the perception of having close ties with the DOT and Shackelford
also helps Moreland Altobelli in competing for contracts with local governments,
which often are eager to gain any edge they can in the competition to secure
money and assistance from the state. "That's what they often present as a
marketing point," Kaiser said. "If I were in their position, I'd do the same
thing."

The marketing must be paying off. More than two dozen counties have hired
Moreland Altobelli over the years, including Gwinnett, Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb,
Henry, Coweta, Newton and Rockdale. The firm has assisted local governments
on more than $1 billion in public works projects -- most of which required
state DOT funding or cooperation.

Furthermore, Moreland Altobelli's competitors believe that having the upper
layer of his company staffed with former DOT officials, with their pensions
and benefits, provides the firm another competitive edge by taking some pressure
off the company's overhead. Moreland refused to respond to specific questions
related to his firm's business with the state or Moreland Altobelli's employment
of former DOT employees.

In an interview, Moreland argued that it is unfair to single out Moreland
Altobelli because his firm is not alone in having a number of former state
employees on the payroll. Moreland declined to name any consulting firm with
so many former DOT employees on its roster.

While other firms do employ former DOT employees, no firm has the same reputation
for having such a heavy concentration. About 30 former DOT officials work
at Moreland Altobelli, clustered at the top of a total work force of more
than 300. A review of documents submitted by firms that competed with Moreland
Altobelli over the past few years shows none with so many former DOT officials
in key positions.

Over the years, the firm has provided a variety of services to the department,
from basic design work to providing construction management and inspections.
The firm was hired last year to design a 10-mile segment of the Fall Line
Freeway in South Georgia. Moreland Altobelli provides broad services for
the DOT in three coastal Georgia counties, where the firm is under contract
to manage many of the department's construction projects.

The firm's familiarity with the state DOT was a selling point when two
independent joint ventures that include Moreland Altobelli secured more than
$2.3 million in consulting work on the state's $80 million project to replace
the Sidney Lanier Bridge near Brunswick, state records show.

Moreland Altobelli also is providing the designs for the DOT's two largest
highway projects, the massive Kennedy Interchange in Cobb County and the
expanse of projects along I-85 near the new Sugarloaf Parkway interchange
under construction in Gwinnett. In both cases, Moreland's clients are private
concerns eager to jump-start certain state projects by paying for the designs
themselves. In each of these cases, Moreland's firm was paid more than $4
million to provide designs.

In Cobb, Moreland Altobelli's client is a consortium of developers in the
booming Cumberland/Galleria district, while in Gwinnett it is the owner of
the 1,900-acre Sugarloaf Farms development. In both cases, the projects rely
on Moreland Altobelli's design skills as well as its ability to deal with
the DOT.

Moreland's firm has benefited from his reputation of having an unparalleled
grasp of the department's inner workings and unusually close ties to its
top officials, particularly Shackelford.

Shackelford, a former developer and Gwinnett County administrator, was installed
at the DOT in 1991 by Gov. Zell Miller, whose chief of staff at the time
was millionaire Virgil Williams. Williams was on the board of directors of
Moreland Altobelli then and remains on the board today.

During Shackelford's administration, Moreland Altobelli has received about
$6 million in DOT contracts, about 80 percent of the work the firm has done
for the state.

Neverthless, Moreland denies that he has any special relationship with the
DOT or Shackelford. In a written statement, he said: "It certainly is common
knowledge that [I] had a long career at Ga. DOT, as did several of the principals
of competing firms."

Even if they are friends, Shackelford said he has no influence in awarding
consulting contracts because he is uninvolved in the DOT's selection process
until his assistants ask him to approve their choice.

"It's set out to be done at the lowest level and rise to the top and not
from the top down," he said. The department spends about $35 million a year
with engineering consultants.

Moreland Altobelli doesn't top the DOT's consultant list in terms of billings
-- two firms, Jordan Jones and Goulding and TRW Inc. billed more in fiscal
1997 alone than Moreland Altobelli has billed over the decade. However, Moreland
Altobelli is among the most active DOT consultants, and its billings have
risen sharply over the past two years.

Moreland enjoys exceptional access to Shackelford, to some extent because
he has so many local government clients who do business with the DOT. The
men meet and talk on the phone frequently. While there are no records of
all the telephone conversations between them, state records show that Moreland
and Shackelford have spoken dozens of times on Shackelford's state-issued
cellular phone.

Records show the men spoke on key dates. For example, Moreland called Shackelford
on Oct. 8, 1992, the day Gwinnett County hired Moreland Altobelli as its
chief transportation engineer -- worth more than $11 million to the firm.
Moreland also called Shackelford within a few days of signing a similar
consulting agreement with Bibb County worth nearly as much. The two men also
spoke by phone on May 30, 1995, the same day that Moreland's private client,
developer Scott Hudgens, wrote Gwinnett County Chairman Wayne Hill with a
proposal for dealing with the transportation needs of Hudgens' Mall of Georgia
project. As part of this proposal, Moreland's firm is redesigning Ga. 20,
which fronts the mall. Shackelford agreed to construct Moreland's design.

Moreland Altobelli cut its teeth on state contracts. In its lean early years
between 1987 and 1990, the firm helped establish its fledgling business with
$650,000 worth of DOT design projects on the northern arc of the Outer Perimeter
-- a project Moreland conceived when he was commissioner.

On April 15, 1987, the day Moreland made the surprise announcement that he
intended to retire, he said he had not yet been offered another job. He set
two criteria for his new career: First, he would not leave Georgia; and,
second, he would not work for a company that did any business with the state.

Moreland now expresses regret that he ever made such a statement, and explains
that he made this pledge before he knew he would be in the engineering business
after retiring. The day after he resigned he was offered a job by Williams,
Miller's prime political patron, as CEO of the Williams Service Group, a
Stone Mountain holding company with a number of subsidiaries that performed
a variety of industrial and commercial services.

However, a few weeks after going to work for Williams, Moreland decided to
start an engineering consulting firm with Donato Altobelli, the former federal
highway chief for Georgia. He then determined that it was impractical to
forgo state contracts.

Not quite a year after his retirement, Moreland's firm delivered a bid to
his former employees at the DOT seeking a contract to design a segment of
the Outer Perimeter in Forsyth County. Moreland's firm was selected and was
paid $247,258 for the job.

The two ranking DOT staff members who approved the selection of Moreland's
firm for the Outer Perimeter contracts were hired by Moreland Altobelli soon
after their retirements, state records show.

Tony Dowd, at the time the state director of pre-construction, recommended
Moreland's firm for the Outer Perimeter project in April 1988, retired in
October and began work at Moreland Altobelli on Nov. 1. Earlier, Dowd had
signed the freshly incorporated firm's 1987 application for certification
to work as a DOT consultant.

The other key DOT official involved in the selection was state highway engineer
Alva Byrom, who retired from the department's third highest post in May 1990
and went to work for Moreland Altobelli in September 1991.

Byrom, who also recommended Moreland's firm for a $186,500 contract to design
bridge widening projects in Bibb County in May 1989, remains Moreland's
right-hand man, handling the firm's bread-and-butter client, Gwinnett County.

Among the other retirees Moreland has hired:

Rodney Tarrer, the former head of the DOT's right of way office, retired
in August 1990 and went to work at Moreland Altobelli the same month. He
manages the firm's land acquisition department, which has represented local
governments in purchasing thousands of parcels.

John Bishop, Moreland Altobelli's point man on the firm's massive Sugarloaf
Parkway and Interchange designs, retired in November 1993 and began working
at Moreland Altobelli two months later. Before he retired, Bishop also worked
on the Sugarloaf project as the DOT's assistant state road and airport designer.

Kent Culpepper, who retired in October 1993, and was the DOT's district engineer
in Brunswick, where he worked with early plans for the Sidney Lanier Bridge
project. Culpepper was still working at the DOT in April 1993, when a team
of firms that included Moreland Altobelli was awarded a design contract for
the first phase of the bridge. Culpepper now is Moreland Altobelli's chief
inspector on the second phase of the bridge, or its nearly $2 million share
of the bridge's construction management contract awarded in 1995.

Ron Colvin, who retired as state safety and traffic engineer in November
1993, now manages Fulton County's road construction program for Moreland
as part of a team of engineering firms known as RMJ.

Even though such "revolving door" practices are illegal in many other states,
Georgia has no law to prevent state department heads from immediately pursuing
state contracts from their old departments. Similarly, there is nothing to
prevent state employees from going to work with a private firm under contract
to the state, even on the same projects the former employees worked on while
on the state's time clock.

The lack of laws restraining potential conflicts of interest frustrates advocates
of ethical reform such as former state Rep. Ken Poston. The author of landmark
ethics legislation that was approved despite stiff opposition in the General
Assembly in 1992, Poston expresses concern about the temptations state workers
may face.

"They might respond to a wink or a nod or whatever, so that they consistently
do things in favor of that company with the tacit understanding that there
would be something waiting for them in the end," said Poston, who pushed
unsuccessfully for revolving door legislation intended to restrict elected
officials from becoming lobbyists.

Poston believes taxpayers may face an even greater risk when state employees
leave their state jobs to sell their skills and knowledge in the private
marketplace.

"This is probably a lot more prevalent a problem, and a lot more insidious,
because it's not quite so obvious as someone in public office switching roles,"
Poston said. "I could see where it could be a horrible problem."

§

While most states have revolving door rules for legislators, about a quarter
of the states also restrict the flow of public employees to private firms
that do business with their former agencies. In some states, former state
employees are forbidden from ever working on projects for which they had
a hand in awarding contracts.

In Alabama, for example, it's illegal for former state employees to act as
lobbyists or to represent clients -- including their private sector employers
-- to their former agencies for two years after leaving state employment.
Additionally, state employees who regulate private companies aren't allowed
to take a job with firms they regulate for two years after leaving the state.

In Georgia, the closest the state gets to regulating engineering firms is
the DOT's certification of those firms that work on any projects funded by
the state or federal governments. Without certification, firms are unable
to work in Georgia.

Georgia is among the handful of states without any revolving door restrictions
on public officials or employees, said Eric Lorensini, a state issues expert
with Common Cause, the nonpartisan public issue advocacy group.

Shackelford said he sees no need to alter the existing arrangements with
new policies or laws. Insider information on DOT projects, he reasons, isn't
really worth much because so much of the agency's work is made public anyway.

He also expressed scant concern that the loyalties of his employees might
be divided because of a prospect of obtaining lucrative private-sector jobs.

"The people in this work force very carefully do not address their future
until their retirement date has come and gone," he said.